1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a television apparatus or the like for producing a three-dimensional perception of images with a lens having a patterned plurality of cylindrical lens portions in front of a flat picture or image screen. Partial stereo images appear on the cylindrical lens portions in a pattern of partial stereo image strips that are rastered.
2. Background Information
The present state of the art, regarding three dimensional images, can be determined by reviewing a number of publications, such U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,257, "Funkschau" Issue 25-26/1981, pages 60-64, especially pages 63 and 64, a publication relating to radio and television, "Electronica Australia," July 1982, pages 12-14, especially page 14 and "IEEE-Transaction on Consumer Electronics" volume CE-25, February 1979, pages 111-113.
As can be determined from the above-referenced publications which relate to the state of the art, the possibility of three-dimensional television has been considered for many years. The publications discuss the different optical systems for the production of stereoscopic and other three-dimensional effects from a theoretical viewpoint. Despite the fact that at least one system has already been tested practically, none of them have, at this point, achieved any degree of a breakthrough into the consumer and/or commercial market.
In the area of office communications, the prerequisites for the introduction of new systems are more favorable. For example, in the magazine "Zeitschrift der Tektronix GmbH, Koln," an in-house publication by Tektronix, June 1987, issue 3, pages 1 and 4, concerns a three dimensional stereographic work station The viewing system of this device contains a liquid crystal stereo switch ("LCSS") which displays the images, alternately, for the right eye and for the left eye, wherein the images seen by the right eye are formed by light that is of a different polarization than that of the light that forms the images for the left eye. The viewer views these images through a pair of glasses that provides a corresponding polarized lens for each eye.